Who Is Attending Cannes Lions 2026? The Complete Creator & Agency Breakdown
Cannes Lions 2026 is the most creator-dense edition in festival history: 267 creators, 43 agencies. UTA leads with 55, WME sends 33, and Billion Dollar Boy has quietly become the creator economy's Cannes champion. Here's the full breakdown.
By Board of Creators ·
Key takeaways
- 267 credentialed creators across 43 agencies are attending Cannes Lions 2026 — the most creator-dense edition of the festival ever.
- UTA leads with 55 creators (Alex Cooper, Paris Hilton, Mel Robbins, Keith Lee, Brittany Broski); WME sends 33 (Steven Bartlett, Chrissy Teigen, Bella Hadid, Vivian Tu).
- Just 7 agencies — UTA, WME, Align PR, Billion Dollar Boy, The Drive Agency, Wishly Group and CAA — account for 164 of the 267 creators (61%).
- Billion Dollar Boy turned its Creator Fund into the smartest brand play of the festival: 18 attendees, most of them award recipients, locking BDB into every editorial conversation.
- The Drive Agency and Wishly Group (13 creators each) confirm the rise of B2B and LinkedIn-native creators — a vertical Cannes has historically ignored.
- Two creators (Cassandra Bankson, Shira Lazar) are attending self-represented — a reminder that established independents can still operate at the highest level without traditional reps.
The Creator Economy Just Took the Main Table at Cannes
Cannes Lions 2026 is shaping up to be the most creator-dense edition of the festival in its history. For the first time, the creator economy isn''t a side conversation happening in a beach activation — it''s sitting at the main table.
This year''s attendee list, curated by Tubefilter''s The Creators List, features 267 creators represented by 43 agencies, spanning everyone from Paralympic gold medalists and pop icons to niche LinkedIn educators and short-form comedy duos.
Here''s everything you need to know about who''s showing up, who''s sending them, and what it all signals for the industry.
The Big Picture: 267 Creators, 43 Agencies
The headline number is striking: 267 credentialed creators are making the trip to the South of France this year. But the more telling stat is that 43 separate agencies have skin in the game.
That''s not just the Big 3 Hollywood agencies hedging their bets — it''s a sprawling ecosystem of creator-first firms, boutique management shops, PR houses, and talent networks all converging on one festival.
The list was compiled by Tubefilter and is accessible via thecreatorslist.com upon form submission, making it the most organized public registry of creator attendees the festival has ever had.
Featured Creators on the Croisette
Tap any name to visit their official channel. Monograms used in lieu of photos to keep the page lightweight and rights-clean.
UTA Is the Undisputed #1 — With 55 Creators
United Talent Agency is sending the largest single delegation by a significant margin: 55 creators under its banner. This isn''t surprising — UTA has been the most aggressive of the legacy talent agencies in building out its creator and digital talent division — but the scale here is notable.
Their roster at Cannes reads like a curated cross-section of the entire creator economy: food, sports, beauty, comedy, tech, lifestyle, and prestige podcast.
Notable UTA creators attending: Alex Cooper (Call Her Daddy), Mel Robbins, Paris Hilton, Brittany Broski, Keith Lee, David Dobrik, Jackie Aina, Ashley Graham, Draymond Green, Nick DiGiovanni, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Colin & Samir, will.i.am, and Ludacris.
WME Sends 33 — Leaning Into Celebrity-Creator Crossover
William Morris Endeavor''s 33-creator delegation leans more heavily into the celebrity-creator hybrid than UTA''s does. Their list is studded with names who have traditional entertainment careers but have built meaningful digital audiences:
Chrissy Teigen, Bella Hadid, Eva Longoria, Rachel Zoe, Ciara, Megan Rapinoe, Piers Morgan, Ryan Serhant, Steven Bartlett, Karl Jacobs, Vivian Tu (Your Rich BFF), and Normani.
WME''s presence signals something important: traditional entertainment representation and creator representation are no longer parallel tracks. They''re the same track.
Align PR: The Breakout Agency Story of Cannes 2026
With 20 creators attending under their name, Align PR is the most surprising agency on this list. They punch well above their weight class relative to their public profile.
Their Cannes roster includes Becky G, Feid, The Stokes Twins, Chris Williamson, Josh Scherer (Mythical Kitchen), Morgan Riddle, Tara Yummy, Jenn Tran, Sophie Habboo, and Maura Higgins. The breadth — music, food, sports, reality TV — suggests Align PR is positioning itself as a cross-vertical lifestyle agency.
Billion Dollar Boy: The Creator Economy''s Cannes Champions
Billion Dollar Boy isn''t just sending creators — they are Cannes. The agency brings 18 attendees, and crucially, the majority of them are recipients of the Billion Dollar Boy Creator Fund Cannes Lions 2026 award. This gives them a built-in editorial angle every time their name comes up at the festival.
BDB''s Cannes Creator Fund class includes:
- Abi Mills — character-led comedy
- Anela Malik — food, travel & culture
- Cindy Chen — avant-garde makeup
- Emma Nicole — gaming & founder of Playnist app
- Desire Lacap — cinematographer
- Fahim Mannan — culture education
- Iván Fernández González — fashion
- Jaleesa Jaikaran — beauty
- Joshua Woodward — LGBTQ+ media
- Kate Kennedy — Be There In Five podcast
- Lauren W. — lifestyle/travel
- Navi Kaur — The Normies (YouTube reactions)
- Niall MacMillan — comedy POV
- Sabina Trojanova — travel
- Sam Cornforth — actor/comedian/fitness
- Vince Way — The Perfect Mix
- Will Coleman — chef, host & cookbook author
The Drive Agency & Wishly Group: The B2B Creator Pipeline
Two agencies — The Drive Agency and Wishly Group — each bring 13 creators and represent a distinct sub-niche of the creator economy: professional creators, data storytellers, and LinkedIn-native educators.
The Drive Agency''s attendees include data creators like Aria Kim (@techwitharia), Sundas Khalid, Jess Ramos (@jessramosdata), and Maggie Ma (@maggieindata), alongside career content creators like Colin Rocker, Sho Dewan, and Dara Denney.
Wishly Group, which operates out of Canada, brings a LinkedIn-heavy roster: Chris Do, Brendan Hufford, Brett Dashevsky, Jack Appleby, Devin Reed, and Tyler Chou (The Creator''s Attorney).
Their presence at Cannes — historically a B2C advertising festival — is a clear signal that B2B creator marketing is demanding a seat at the festival.
CAA: 12 Creators, Maximum Star Power
Creative Artists Agency brings 12 creators but their list is arguably the highest density of recognizable names per slot. Dhar Mann, Hannah Stocking, Adam Waheed, Quen Blackwell, Sky Brown, and Jack Goldberg (Jack''s Dining Room) are on the list, alongside media figures like Rachel Karten (Link in Bio newsletter) and podcast co-hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays of TBPN.
Other Notable Agencies to Watch
DBA (Digital Brand Architects) — 11 creators, including Kelly Piquet, Kate Bartlett, Madison Appel, and Victoria Hiegel. DBA''s dual-rep structure (many of their creators also appear on UTA''s list) suggests they''re operating as a co-management layer rather than a competing firm.
Underscore Talent — 10 creators including Logan Moffitt, Janette Ok, Darryl Williams (Bully Juice), and Chari Hawkins.
Insight Media — 8 creators including Kenzie Ziegler, Kendall Maynard, and Paige Taylor. Their presence skews younger and more Gen Z, notable for a festival that has historically skewed older.
Sixteenth — 6 creators with a LinkedIn-meets-lifestyle positioning: Lara Acosta, Coco Mocoe, Grace Wells, Maddie Borge, Mia McGrath, and Max Klymenko.
Night — 4 creators with a strong athlete-creator angle: Hunter Woodhall and Tara Davis Woodhall (Olympic/Paralympic gold medalists), Sam Cutler, and Emma Slater (Dancing With the Stars).
Spotter — 3 creators including Jordan Matter, Rebecca Zamolo, and Kinigra Deon. Worth noting that Spotter''s presence represents the creator finance/funding vertical entering the festival directly.
The Most Influential Creators on the List
Alex Cooper (UTA) — Host of Call Her Daddy, one of the most-listened-to podcasts in the world; the face of the podcast-as-brand economy.
Steven Bartlett (WME) — Host of Diary of a CEO, the UK''s most prominent creator-entrepreneur and a festival regular who is reportedly attending the full week.
Paris Hilton (UTA) — The original influencer, now a fully realized creator-entrepreneur with 11:11 Media and deep brand partnership infrastructure.
Mel Robbins (UTA) — Author-turned-creator whose self-help content generates hundreds of millions of views and anchor-level brand deals.
Dhar Mann (CAA) — YouTube''s most prolific moral storytelling creator, known for hyper-produced short films with explicit brand integration.
Keith Lee (UTA) — Food creator whose reviews have provoked measurable foot traffic spikes at restaurants, redefining the creator-as-economic-catalyst narrative.
Vivian Tu / Your Rich BFF (WME) — Finance creator and author who has built one of the most commercially successful personal finance media brands in the digital space.
Veritasium (Electrify) — Derek Muller''s science YouTube channel, representing the independent creator-intellectual segment and the growing prestige of long-form educational content.
Brittany Broski (UTA) — Multi-platform comedian and one of Gen Z''s most culturally fluent creators, with a fanbase that moves between TikTok, YouTube, and podcasting.
Colin & Samir (UTA) — The foremost analysts of the creator economy itself; their attendance is essentially meta — they''ll be covering the festival while being a feature of it.
Malcolm Gladwell (Lippin Group) — Author and Revisionist History podcaster whose presence signals that the publishing-to-podcast pipeline is now part of the creator economy conversation at the brand level.
Hunter Woodhall & Tara Davis Woodhall (Night) — Paralympic and Olympic gold medalists who have built one of the most organic and commercially significant athlete-creator brands without traditional sports media infrastructure.
Chrissy Teigen (WME) — One of the original celebrity-social hybrids, now fully embedded in the creator ecosystem through Cravings and multi-platform brand ownership.
David Dobrik (UTA) — OG YouTube creator who defined the vlog era; his presence signals an ongoing repositioning as a brand-facing entertainment entity.
Bella Hadid (WME) — Supermodel turned creator with significant TikTok presence; represents the luxury fashion vertical''s growing creator investment.
What the Agency Distribution Actually Tells Us
The concentration of creators within a handful of agencies — UTA, WME, Align PR, BDB, The Drive Agency, Wishly Group, and CAA account for 164 of the 267 creators — confirms a few things the industry has suspected but rarely seen this clearly laid out.
First, the Big 3 talent agencies have genuinely arrived in the creator space. UTA and WME alone account for 33% of the entire list. This isn''t dabbling — it''s market capture.
Second, creator-first agencies are not being displaced; they''re specializing. The Drive Agency, Wishly Group, DBA, and Underscore Talent have carved out clear verticals (B2B/LinkedIn, beauty, lifestyle/fashion) that the Hollywood agencies haven''t commoditized. There''s room for both ecosystems.
Third, Billion Dollar Boy''s Creator Fund is the smartest brand-building move any creator agency made this year. By funding creators'' trips to Cannes and tying those trips to award recognition, BDB has made itself synonymous with the festival''s creator economy conversation at zero incremental risk.
Fourth, Cannes is no longer a festival with a creator track — it''s a creator festival that also does everything else. The scale and diversity of this list makes that argument decisively.
The Independents Still Hold Their Own
Two creators on the list — Cassandra Bankson (YouTube beauty creator and founder) and Shira Lazar (digital media host and founder of What''s Trending) — are listed without agency representation. Their presence as self-represented attendees is a reminder that the most established independent operators can still navigate spaces like Cannes on their own terms.
Bottom Line
The Creators List for Cannes Lions 2026 is the most comprehensive snapshot we have of where the creator economy''s institutional infrastructure currently sits. UTA is dominant. WME is ascending. Billion Dollar Boy is the smartest brand in the room. The Drive Agency and Wishly Group are quietly building the B2B creator playbook. And 267 creators — from Olympic athletes to science YouTubers to finance TikTokers to OG Hollywood comedians — are about to descend on the Croisette.
The creator economy spent years trying to get taken seriously by the advertising industry. In 2026, it showed up with 267 people and a list.
Source: The Creators List by Tubefilter (June 2026) — thecreatorslist.com